PRESERVING POTATOES. 451 



it was recommended very highly as an early potato. From that 

 seed they have been propagated extensively through my vicinity 

 under the name of "Vermont Early." It is a little earlier than 

 the old "Early Blues" were when we could raise them ; and they 

 are good, I may say first rate, for eating, and as soon as they get 

 a tolerably fair growth ; you do not have to wait, as you do with 

 some other varieties, for them to ripen. But they yield rather 

 moderately. 



Secretary GooDALE. Is that the same potato as the "General 

 Grant ?" 



Mr. CoMiNs. I am not sufficiently versed in potatoology to deter- 

 mine ; but if I had found that potato among my "Vermont Earlies" 

 I should have had no hesitation is saying that it belonged there. 



The President. What is their liability to rot ? 



Mr. CoMiNs. I have not noticed a rotton one among mine this 

 year. I raise but few, supposing they would not go well as a ship- 

 ping potato, and they are not so prolific as some others. I raise 

 them only for early use, but some raise them to eat during the 

 winter. 



The President. It might be well to discuss farther the best 

 method of preserving potatoes. 



Hon. J. H. EicE, of Bangor. I know well the importance of 

 this question to the people of Maine, and wish it were in my 

 power to say something that might throw light upon it. I rise 

 simply to repeat a brief conversation I had a few moments ago 

 with Mr. G. P. Sewall, of Oldtown, touching this point. He said, 

 "For the last ten years I have not had a peck of rotten potatoes 

 in my cellar." His method is this : he digs his potatoes at the 

 usual time, say the last of September, and deposits them in rows 

 about twenty feet long, piling them up like an inverted V, and 

 covering them with earth. He puts first the vines, and then 

 boards upon them, not to keep the rain out, for he says the wet 

 is no injury, but simply to keep the rain from washing the earth 

 off. He lets them remain there until the ground crusts over with 

 frost— say until the 10th or 15th of November, — then breaks the 

 frozen crust, and takes out the potatoes. They come out in fine 

 order, and if there is a rotten potato among them it is very easy 

 to detect it ; he then puts them in the cellar, and never has any 

 rot after that. This is the method of preserving sweet potatoes 

 at the south. They never put them in a cellar. They do not 

 cover them very deeply, because the frosts are not severe. 



